1. PRESENT SIMPLE VS PRESENT
CONTINUOUS
What does Rihanna do? What is Rihanna doing?
She is a singer. She is walking on the
stage.
By Carme Flores, SI Vallbona,
2012
2. PRESENT SIMPLE
Uses: regular habits and routines; things that are
always true (permanent situations or scientific facts);
states, not actions; future only with timetabled activities.
Time-adverbials Frequency adverbs and
expressions: always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely,
seldom/ hardly ever, never; once a week, twice a year,
three times a day; every day/ week/ summer, etc.
Form:
Aff. The sun rises in the east; Mary often wears trainers;
They play tennis; She is very optimistic; The train leaves
at 10.15 a.m. Neg. The sun doesn´t rise in the west;
Mary doesn´t usually wear trainers; They don´t play
tennis; She isn´t very optimistic; The train doesn´t leave
at 10 a.m. Q. Does Mary often wear trainers? (Yes, she
does./ No, she doesn´t.); Do they play tennis? (Yes, they
do./ No, they don´t.), Is she very optimistic? (Yes, she is.
/ No, she isn´t.)
4. PRESENT CONTINUOUS
Uses: Actions happening now or around now;
temporary actions; changing situations; future plans or
arrangements.
Time-adverbials : now, right now, at the moment,
these days, today, at present, nowadays, this week, next
Saturday, tomorrow at 5.00, etc.
Form:
Aff. The sun is shining today; Mary is wearing trainers;
“Look! The dog is biting the sofa!”; They are playing a lot
of tennis these days; I’m living with my aunt for a couple
of weeks; I´m going to the dentist tomorrow at 6.00.
Neg. The sun isn´t shining today. It´s very cloudy; They
aren´t playing much tennis these days.
Q. Is the sun shining today? (Yes, it is.; No, it isn´t.); Are
they playing tennis these days? (Yes, they are.; No, they
aren´t.)
5. V- ing
SPELLING
V-e live: living; smoke: smoking
V-ie V-ying die: dying, lie: lying
V-CVC* double consonant (except for X,W. Stress
on last syllable)
run: running, swim: swimming, refer: referring,
dub:dubbing, sit: sitting, stop: stopping, also exceptionally in
British English travel:travelling
*CVC=Consonant Vowel Consonant
6. STATIVE VERBS
Stative verbs are not usually used with progressive
tenses (i.e: present continuous, past continuous, etc.)
Dislike, hate, like, love, prefer, want, wish .
Believe, doubt, feel (=have an opinion), guess, imagine,
know, mean, realise, recognize, remember, suppose,
think (=have an opinion), understand.
Hear, see, measure (=have length, etc.), taste (=have a
flavour), smell (=give out a smell), sound, weigh (=have
weight).
Belong to, concern, consist of, contain, depend on,
deserve, fit, include, involve, lack, matter, need, owe,
possess.
Appear, resemble, seem.
7. Compare the progressive or non-
progressive use of certain stative verbs:
What are you thinking about? I think you´re right.
I´m feeling fine. I feel we shouldn´t do it.
Why are you smelling the meat? Is it bad? The meat
smells bad.
`What are you doing with my whisky?´ - `I´m just tasting it.´
It tastes wonderful.
The scales broke when I was weighing myself this morning.
I weighed 68 kilos three months ago – and look at me now!
Why´s that man measuring the street? I measure 75 cm.
round the waist.
I´m seeing philip tomorrow. I see what you mean.
I can see a woman wearing a yellow dress.